Investigation method for cascading effects between critical infrastructures

Summary, in English

This paper presents an investigation method for studying cascading effects in incidents, which is to some extent lacking in the scientific literature. Several incident investigation methods are reviewed and used to influence the presented method. The usefulness of the method is demonstrated in a case study for a recent event in Sweden, a severe flooding event in the city of Malmö in south of Sweden 31st of August 2014. The case study revealed that the method enables the gathering and structuring of information about cascading

effects and conditions that affect the outcome of cascading effects. An advantage of the method is that it also captures aggravating or mitigating conditions as well as potential cascading effects, enabling the study of near misses and alternative scenario developments. Concluding that the method has proven its practical value and it fills a current gap when it comes to investigation methods focused on cascading effects.

• Author: Björn Arvidsson; Jonas Johansson; Henrik Hassel; Alexander Cedergren
• Department/s: Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety; Industrial Electrical Engineering and Automation; Centre for Societal Resilience
• Publishing year: 2015
• Language: English
• Pages: 3399-3407
• Publication/Series: Safety and Reliability of Complex Engineered Systems - Proceedings of the 25th European Safety and Reliability Conference, ESREL 2015
• Document type: Conference paper
• Publisher: ESREL2015
• Topic: Other Engineering and Technologies
• Keywords: Cascading Effects; Critical Infrastructures; Risk; Vulnerability; Investigation Method
• Conference name: European Safety and Reliability Conference (ESREL2015)
• Conference date: 2015-09-07 - 2015-09-10
• Status: Published
• Research group: LUCRAM (Lund University Center for Risk Analysis and Management
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISBN: 978-113802879-1